Charles Ellicott Commentary Luke 22:45

"And when he rose up from his prayer, he came unto the disciples, and found them sleeping for sorrow," — Luke 22:45 (ASV)

He found them sleeping for sorrow.—It is, perhaps, again characteristic of St. Luke, that while the other Gospels state simply the fact that the disciples slept, he assigns it psychologically and physiologically to its cause. Prolonged sorrow has, at last, a numbing and narcotising effect. (See Note on believing not for joy, Luke 24:41.)